Old Country Ties
Not only are immigrants inclined to become entrepreneurs, they bring an innate selling proposition: the flavour of home
by Scott Messenger
“Not surprisingly,” says Krahn, “their parents say, ‘We got you this far, now it’s up to you to get ahead,’ and so there’s really a culture of ‘work hard, try hard’ instilled in them. There’s a lot of barriers but, in a perverse way, the barriers the parents are facing become motivators for them to push their kids.”
“I don’t want to change the bylaws and make history here,” says Vaquilar. “I just want to survive.” As far as he’s concerned, there’s no reason he won’t. “If my father can come here from the other side of the world, not even speaking the language, in the sub-zero winter, get on his feet and a year later have the rest of us come over, I can have this business here.”
For immigrants, Alberta has been good, too, by employment numbers at least. In 2006, unemployment amongst recent arrivals was 5.8%, half the national average (double, mind you, that of native-born Albertans). And with a shortage of 100,000 workers expected over the next decade, newcomers’ chances of success here may even improve, especially if Amolak Grewal has his way. President and CEO of HumanEdge Global, the recruitment agency he recently left after 20 years in financial services (finished by six as ATB Financial’s chief operating officer), Grewal sees foreign-born talent as one fix for the looming workforce crisis.
“The ability of Canadian companies to attract top decile people within Canada is very limited. They are very well-compensated and defended by whomever they work for today. However, in India that is not the case. Their domestic economy is still nowhere near able to absorb the production of such technically skilled people. Their choices are either be underemployed or move outside that country.”
Grewal’s father, who served in the British military before Indian independence in 1947, made that choice for him. Wanting a western education for his son, he sent Amolak, 15 years old, to join family in Brooks. From there, he went on to a computer science degree at the University of Calgary, finishing in 1980 as part of just the second class graduated by the department. Now bringing over his first set of about 50 of India’s top performers, Grewal sees the benefits provided by HumanEdge as two-fold. Not only will Alberta companies get a boost to their engineering, accounting and information technology capacities, but, quite possibly, individual lives will change for the better.
“I’m a living example of that,” he says. “If I had not had this opportunity, I believe I would not have had as successful a career.
“I often joke with my daughters, who are both at the University of Alberta, when they complain about how difficult it is to get into the School of Business.” Laughter, he admits, comes quicker than sympathy. “Thank your lucky stars you were born here,” he tells them. “You don’t know what tough is.”
But amongst the struggles common to newcomers, like language, lack of savings, trouble in having credentials recognized, or just the overwhelming feeling of dislocation, says Grewal, is potential.
“They all come with tremendous hope, tremendous aspirations and tremendous desire,” says Grewal, now making plans to start recruiting from Poland and Brazil. “They are full of promise when they land.”
HumanEdge Global, says Grewal, is still proof-of-concept. Similarly, Balmaur goats have yet to turn a profit. How smoking’s bad rap will affect Vaquilar remains uncertain. And More than Mangos, despite making inroads with Calgary’s restaurants, isn’t, so far, self-sustaining. But Herrera, like the others, isn’t overly concerned.
Back in Canyon Meadows, Herrera and I crack the tough skins of some mamoncillos – green like key limes, but smaller – and pop the lychee-like fruits into our mouths. As he chews, Herrera manages a vignette about growing up in Colombia, raiding mamoncillo trees with his friends. With one kid at the trunk, the rest would stand beneath the boughs, T-shirts stretched like nets.
“We’d just shake that thing,” he says with a smile. Then they’d gorge themselves.
I’m tempted to ask Herrera if, these days, he ever sees himself as the kid shaking the tree, and if he really expects the same kind of results now. But the melt-in-your-mouth, perfect sweet-tart balance of the mamoncillo has a silencing effect. Even more so than the granadilla, it’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted before.
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